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1897
Year 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). Events of 1897 January - March : Pres. McKinley.]] * January 4 - A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the Oba of Benin. This leads to a Punitive Expedition against Benin. * January 23 - Elva Zona Heaster found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband was perhaps the only case in United States history where the testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction. * February 2 - Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania state capitol, is destroyed by fire. * February 10 - Freedom of religion is proclaimed in Madagascar. * February 18 - Benin is put to the torch by the Punitive Expedition. * March 4 - William McKinley succeeds Grover Cleveland as President of the United States. * March 13 - San Diego State University is founded. April - June : Tennessee Centennial Exposition in Nashville.]] *April 5 - "Ordinance of April 5," equalizing German and Czech in Bohemia, signed in Austria-Hungary (see Kasimir Felix Graf Badeni). * April 27 - Grant's Tomb is dedicated. * May 1 - The Tennessee Centennial Exposition opens in Nashville, for 6 months, illuminated by many electric lights. * May 10 - Snaefell Mining Disaster in the Isle of Man, 1897 * May 18 - Dracula, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker is published. * May 19 - Oscar Wilde is released from prison. : Dracula by Bram Stoker.]] * June 1 - The great miners strike of 1897 begins. The strike would successfully establish the United Mine Workers Union and brought about the 8-hour work day to the mines. * June 2 - Mark Twain, responding to rumors that he was dead, is quoted by the New York Journal as saying, "The report of my death was an exaggeration." * June 12 - World's first Fingerprint Bureau opens in Calcutta (now Kolkata) India after the Council of the Governor General approved a committee report that fingerprints should be used for classification of criminal records. * June 22 - Queen Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee. July - September * July 11 - S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 begins. The ill-fated expedition to fly over the Arctic results in the death of the entire team within months. * July 17 - Klondike Gold Rush begins when first successful prospectors arrive in Seattle. * July 25 - Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush where he will write his first successful stories. * July 31 - First ascent of Mount Saint Elias, second highest peak in the United States and Canada. * August 29 - First Zionist Congress convenes in Basel, Switzerland. : Ethiopian flag.]] * September 1 - The Boston subway opens, becoming the first underground metro in North America. * September 10 - In the Lattimer Massacre, a sheriff's posse killes more than nineteen unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania. * September 11 - After months of searching, generals of Menelik II of Ethiopia capture Gaki Sherocho, the last king of Kaffa, bringing an end to that ancient kingdom. * September 20 - Greece and Turkey sign a peace treaty to end the Greco-Turkish War. : [[Wikipedia:USS Baltimore (C-3)|USS Baltimore]] (C-3) in Hawaii.]] October - December * October 2 - The first issue is published of the radical paper Tocsin. * October 6 - Ethiopia uses tricolore flag: green is for the land, yellow for peace, and red is symbolic of strength. * October 12 - The [[Wikipedia:USS Baltimore (C-3)|USS Baltimore]] (Cruiser # 3, later CM-1) is recommissioned, since 1890, for several months of duty in the Hawaiian Islands. * October 13 - The HMS Canopus, a pre-Dreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy, is launched at Portsmouth (will be deployed widely in World War I). * December 9 - First issue of the feminist newspaper La Fronde is published by Marguerite Durand. * December 28 - The play Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand, premieres in Paris. * December 30 - Natal annexes Zululand. '' in Paris.]] Undated * France allows women to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. * First use of the word "computer" meaning an electronic calculation device. * Coseley Urban District Council is formed. * Dos Equis is first brewed in anticipation of new century. * J. J. Thomson discovers the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1800 times smaller than a proton (in the nucleus). Births January - June *January 3 - Marion Davies, American actress (d. 1961) *January 21 - René Iché, French sculptor (d. 1954) *January 23 **Subhash Chandra Bose, Indian political leader (d. 1945(?)) **Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Austrian architect and anti-Nazi activist (d. 2000) *January 28 - Ivan Stedeford, British Industrialist (d. 1975) *February 4 - Ludwig Erhard, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1977) *February 7 - Quincy Porter, American composer (d. 1966) *February 10 **John F. Enders, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1985) **Dame Judith Anderson, Australian actress (d. 1992) *February 21 - Elizabeth Harrison, daughter of President Benjamin Harrison and Mary Dimmick Harrison (d. 1955) *February 27 **Ferdinand Heim, WWII German general, the "Scapegoat of Stalingrad" (d. 1977) **Marian Anderson, American contralto (d. 1993) *March 1 - Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith (d. 1957) *March 4 - Lefty O'Doul, baseball player and restaurateur (d. 1969) *March 5 - Set Persson, Swedish communist politician (d. 1960) *March 15 - Jackson Scholz, American sprinter (d. 1986) *March 20 - Ruby Muhammad, African Americans' rights activist *March 24 - Wilhelm Reich, Austrian psychotherapist (d. 1957) *March 28 - Sepp Herberger, German football coach (d. 1977) *April 7 - Walter Winchell, American broadcast journalist (d. 1972) *April 9 - John B. Gambling, American radio talk-show host (d. 1974) *April 19 **Peter de Noronha, Indian businessman (d. 1970) **Constance Talmadge, American actress (d. 1973) *April 21 - Aiden Wilson Tozer, American Protestant pastor (d. 1963) *April 23 - Lester B. Pearson, Prime Minister of Canada, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1972) *April 25 - Mary of England (d. 1965) *April 26 **Douglas Sirk, German-born director (d. 1987) **Eddie Eagan, American boxer and bobsledder (d. 1967) *May 2 - J. Fred Coots, American songwriter (d. 1985) *May 14 - Sidney Bechet, American musician (d. 1959) *May 17 - Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981) *May 18 - Frank Capra, American producer, director, and writer (d. 1991) *May 19 - Frank Luke, American World War I pilot (d. 1918) *May 21 - Nikola Avramov, Bulgarian painter (d. 1945) *May 27 - John Cockcroft, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967) *May 29 - Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Austrian composer (d. 1957) *June 7 - George Szell, Hungarian conductor (d. 1970) *June 10 - Grand Duchess Tatiana of Russia (d. 1918) *June 12 - Anthony Eden, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1977) *June 13 - Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner (d. 1973) *June 16 - Georg Wittig, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987) *June 19 **Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967) **Moe Howard, American comedian and actor (d. 1975) *June 22 - Edmund A. Chester, American Broadcaster and journalist (d. 1973) July - December *July 20 - Tadeus Reichstein, Polish-born chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1996) *July 24 - Amelia Earhart, American aviator (d. 1937 - presumed) *July 29 - Sir Neil Ritchie, British general (d. 1983) *August 2 - Max Weber, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 1974) *August 5 - Aksel Larsen, Danish politician (d. 1972) *August 28 - Charles Boyer, French actor (d. 1978) *September 1 - Andy Kennedy, Northern Irish footballer (d. 1963) *September 8 - Jimmie Rodgers, American singer (d. 1933) *September 12 - Irene Joliot-Curie, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1956) *September 17 - Earl Webb, baseball player (d. 1965) *September 23 - Walter Pidgeon, Canadian actor (d. 1984) *September 25 - William Faulkner, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962) *September 26 **Pope Paul VI (d. 1978) **Arthur Rhys Davids, English pilot (d. 1917) * October 2 - Bud Abbott, American actor (d. 1974) *October 3 - Louis Aragon, French author (d. 1982) *October 15 - Johannes Sikkar, Estonian statesman (d. 1960) *October 20 - Yi Un, Korean Crown Prince (d. 1970) *October 29 - Joseph Goebbels, German Nazi propagandist (d. 1945) *November 9 - Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1978) *November 15 - Sacheverell Sitwell, English author (d. 1988) *November 17 - Frank Fay, American actor and first husband of Barbara Stanwyck (d. 1961) *November 17 - George Hendric Houghton, American Protestant Episcopal clergyman (b. 1820) *November 18 - Patrick Blackett, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974) *November 23 - Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Bengali author (d. 1999) *November 24 - Charlie Luciano, Sicilian-American mobster (d. 1962) *November 30 - Virginia Henderson, American nurse theorist (d. 1996) *December 18 - Fletcher Henderson, American musician (d. 1952) *December 30 - Alfredo Bracchi, Italian author (d. 1976) Deaths January-June * February 4 - Major Charles Bendire, U.S. Army captain and ornithologist (b. 1836) * February 19 - Karl Weierstrass, German mathematician (b. 1815) * March 11 - Henry Drummond, Scottish evangelical writer and lecturer (b. 1851) * March 19 - Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie, Irish-born traveler (b. 1810) * April 1 - Jandamarra, Aborigine who led armed insurrections against white settlement in Australia. * April 3 - Johannes Brahms, German composer (b. 1833) *April 10 - Friedrich Franz III (b. 1851) *May 4 - Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria (b. 1847) *May 10 - Andrés Bonifacio, Filipino revolutionary (b. 1863) July-December * September 9 **Richard Holt Hutton, English writer and theologian (b. 1826) **Ferenc Pulszky, Hungarian politician (b. 1814) * September 21 - Wilhelm Wattenbach, German historian (b. 1819) * September 30 - St Therese of Lisieux, Catholic saint (b. 1873) * October 29 - Henry George, American economist (b. 1839) *November - Francisco Gonzalo Marin, Cuban poet and freedom fighter (b. 1863) *November 3 - Thomas Lanier Clingman, "Prince of Politicians" (b. 1812) * November 19 - William Seymour Tyler, American educator and historian (b. 1810) * November 20 - Ernest Giles, Australian explorer (b. 1835) * December 17 - Alphonse Daudet, French writer (b. 1840) *''date unknown'' - Owon, Korean painter (b. 1843)